General Business, Corporate and Finance
Our clients range from closely held family entities to Fortune 500 companies. We have extensive experience in advising and working with businesses of all sizes and types on a broad spectrum of issues related to virtually all areas of management, finance and operations. We have developed a special expertise for working with new and developing companies, especially in the high-tech manufacturing sector. At one point in 2011 alone we were acting as lead Mississippi counsel in the establishment, acquisition, construction and startup of seven new manufacturing plants at the same time – plants with a total projected investment of more than $1.5 billion – and we have extensive experience in working with the Mississippi Development Authority, Mississippi Department of Revenue, Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and other state agencies in obtaining special financing, tax and other incentives, training assistance and permitting for new or expanded business enterprises. In addition, we help clients select and establish the appropriate form of business entity, including corporations, limited-liability companies, partnerships and joint ventures.
Our services involve negotiating and drafting buy-sell agreements, employment agreements, non-competition and confidentiality agreements, leases, security agreements and ad valorem exemptions; negotiating and drafting agreements for the purchase of a company's assets or stock as well as spin-offs, mergers, reorganizations and liquidations; providing legal opinions; designing and drafting qualified profit-sharing, pension and 401(k) plans, cafeteria plans and educational assistance plans as well as a wide array of executive compensation arrangements. In addition, our lawyers prepare private placement memorandums for filing with the Securities division of the Mississippi Secretary of State's office; represent clients before the Mississippi State Tax Commission, the Mississippi Business Finance Corporation, the Internal Revenue Service and other governmental agencies; form not-for-profit entities and obtain recognition of exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service; develop succession plans for family-owned business clients which enable the current generation to pass ownership to younger generations; obtain and negotiate financing through the use of industrial development bonds; and provide corporate record keeping.